Harsh
by Varishi
Summary: This mission is important - it's not everyday the Joker plans a mass murder. But when Robin runs into someone from his not-so-good-guy past, where exactly will his loyalties lie? DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN YOUNG JUSTICE. AU.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hiya! Varishi here! Yeah, so, I'm back and with a different story. After having writer's block for a really long time and then being help up with exams and all sorts of other stuff, I'm back!**_

_**I hope you all enjoy this one; this chapter's probably a little bit longer than the future ones will be but hey! I have a lot to make up for!**_

_**As usual, leave a comment and tell me what you're thinking :)**_

_**On with the story!**_

"Remind me again why I'm awake?" Batman demanded as we walked towards Happy Harbour together. We'd both been doing extra patrols around Gotham recently and we were completely exhausted. Still, there was a mission that the team needed to go on and so the both of us had to drag ourselves out of bed and head down to Happy Harbour. The others would be waiting, well rested and diligent, for Batman's orders.

I could feel my feet getting heavier with every step, when was the last time I ate anyway? I could tell that Batman was the same, but neither of us would admit that we should do something about this. If we had any luck, M'Gann would have cooked something. It really didn't matter what. I stretched as I walked and let out a loud yawn before responding, "I really don't know. I had to kick you like three times to get you up. You sleep like a log, Bruce, and it doesn't seem healthy."

"Ugh, shut up." Batman growled before chuckling and shoving me a little ways to my right. I stumbled and then pretending like it hadn't happened. We were approaching the mountain, so that meant it was time to stop mucking about and it was time to stop being tired. We looked at each other and then walked into the mountain through the back entrance.

"You go and meet with the team. I'll go and get everything I need." Bruce said going into Batman mode. I nodded and made my way down to the room where the team always sat together to hang out. As I walked in I saw everyone there, so nobody was missing. I went straight over to the sofa and spread myself out over it. It felt so good to just lay down somewhere for once.

"Well... Hello to you too, Robin." Artemis said in an amused sarcastic voice. I just lifted a hand and waved in her direction. They were all used to this by now, me just walking in and not saying a word, I was too tired to bother. I felt the sofa shifting under another person's weight as Artemis moved closer to me, "Another late night, huh?" She asked softly. I nodded twice and stayed exactly where I was.

"Any idea what the mission is then Rob?" KF asked. He sped over to where I was spread out and sat on the floor in front of me. I sighed heavily and turned over to face him. I studied his excited face and shook my head slightly; missions in Gotham were never anything to be excited about. They were dangerous, and they were messy. Reaching out, I put my hand on his head and shoved him away a little bit.

"You're too close, dude. Just wait for Batman. He'll be here any second." I moaned. Wally's face fell and he poked me a little bit before giving up and smirking at me. He knew as well as I did that I wasn't going to expand on the matter. He'd know everything there was to know soon anyway. Nobody else tried to disturb me: M'gann was too gentle for that, Connor was too uninterested and Aqualad had nothing to gain. I was totally comfortable with that.

"Gather around." Batman announced as he entered the room at last. I hauled myself up off of the sofa and moved into the line where we usually stood. My mentor looked me over before beginning just to make sure that I was actually still awake. I had to say myself that it was an absolute miracle that I was. I returned the same attention to looking him over. His wakefulness was amazing too, especially since he usually went out on 'secret' patrols without me too.

"I'm sending you all out to Gotham," Batman began bluntly. Connor opened his mouth but before he could say it, Batman continued, "I know there's my 'no supers' rule, but this is important. A mass murder plan to be precise and The Joker doesn't leave much to chance. The idea is, I go after the Joker, and you go after the people that he has someone gotten to do his bidding."

"You can't go after the Joker alone." I spoke up crossing my arms firmly across my body. When he looked at me I shook my head firmly and spoke again, "I won't let you." I noticed Wally look over at me and frown. He must have noticed the worry in my voice that I don't usually let slip. But this was the _Joker _and we had history with him that proved Batman shouldn't go alone.

"I'm not going alone. Robin, you'll have to trust me on this." He said with a slight plea evident in his voice. I looked at him hard and cocked my head slightly to the side, who was there that he trusted enough to confront the Joker with who wasn't in the League? I couldn't think of anyone, but Batman never lied to me. Not to me.

"Who? Why not the League?" I probed. The rest of the team looked at me with slight shock. They always seemed somewhat amazed when I asked questions to Batman. But I could never see why. Why shouldn't I ask questions to my own partner? It was because I worried for him that I asked so many questions. I thought that if he wouldn't look out for his own safety then I would have to.

"The Leaguers that I would normally call on are on an off-planet mission. It's a little more important than this one, too." Batman responded. I supposed that made sense, they were probably off settling a war or something, or maybe even managing something of Green Lantern's business. But why was Batman being so mysterious on who would be helping him defeat the Joker? He walked over to me and put both of his hands on my shoulders before saying slowly and quietly, "Robin, trust in me."

I couldn't question him any further. After all, there was no one that I trusted more in the world than Batman. So I relented and gave him a single confirming nod. He patted my shoulder once and then went back to his original place. He remembered where he was and then started again, "Your team is going to be tracking down the team of people who the Joker has hired to put his plan into action. We don't know what that plan is exactly so you're going to need to capture one and get information out of them first."

"How will we know who we are tracking?" Aqualad asked. Batman clicked a button on the screen behind him and pulled up a map of Gotham that had fifteen red dots on it. They were spread throughout the city, but one thing was immediately obvious. They were spread amongst the outer parts of the city, in other words, they were spread amongst where the richer people lived.

"I know exactly where they are. Robin and I have been doing some additional patrols of Gotham recently, and along the way I marked fifteen people with a tracker who belonged to the same group. A group that I know for a fact is dealing with the Joker after the sixteenth of them was arrested a week ago for pulling off a robbery of a technology company through the use of laughing gas." Batman said. I hadn't even noticed at the time, but now that I thought about it he had disappeared every now and then. I just hadn't thought anything of it at the time.

"So we're supposed to go and find these people, get information from one and then arrest the others?" Artemis asked. Batman nodded his confirmation and then turned around to send the map to the rest of us individually. When he turned back around he focused on me in particular and said, "You leave in two hours so I suggest you get ready. Obviously the arrests depend on circumstance." Then he just left. He just walked out without saying anything else.

When the arrests were dependant on circumstance that meant that if Batman gave the word, we didn't arrest them. We took them back to the League and they would decide what to do with them. Sometimes the people who were taken back to the League didn't really come back out again. They didn't kill them obviously, but I had known Leaguers to banish villains from Earth in the past. That seemed harsh, no matter who it was.

Wally, M'Gann and Connor went to their rooms to get dressed and ready for the mission. Sundown was in an hour, and there had to be a reason that we were completing this mission in the dark. Maybe it was so that we had surprise on our side or something. The remaining of us, Aqualad, Artemis and I, turned to look at each other. Artemis was the first to talk, "I need to go and get my bow and quiver. Y'know, safety checks and all that."

As Artemis walked away Aqualad looked at me and asked if I had everything. I didn't see why he'd even ask. The moment I got into my Robin costume I had everything. Plus, even in civvies my utility belt was always right there with me. I never left the house without it; it was like the first rule or something. I returned the question back at Aqualad and then smirked when he realised he hadn't and walked away to get his water bearers.

Once we were all back together again, we had half an hour to waste. So we decided to make it productive and make some sort of a vague plan, or just clarify the mission in our heads. Being the leader, naturally Aqualad started, "So there are fifteen of them right? Maybe we should split in half to cover more ground."

"No!" I shouted quickly before the idea could go any further. Aqualad and M'Gann jumped and then asked why. I lowered my voice and tried to forget how stupid I must have sounded just then, "Sorry, I just mean you don't split up in Gotham. Like, ever. We've got to try not to lose each other if we can help it."

"Fine, so we stay together. How're we going to get information out of the first one?" Artemis asked. We all thought about this for a moment. Everyone else was probably brain storming some kind of a tactic or a plan to get the person to spill. But I knew Gotham, and if it was the Joker that they were working under it would take a hell of a lot for them to just tell us everything.

"I think we'll have to rely on scare tactics. We can't appeal to a better nature that doesn't exist, and we certainly can't torture them. Honestly, I don't think we have must chance of getting a full set of information out of any of them. We might have to gather staggered information from several of them." I said thoughtfully. Everyone seemed in agreement. At any rate, it was time to board the Bio-ship and go.

Once aboard, M'Gann gently lifted the ship into the air. Then, once at the appropriate height and at cruising speed we all turned our chairs in so that we were all facing one another and only M'Gann was facing forward so that she could see what she was doing. KF leaned in my direction and then asked a question that I had been wondering about myself, "So I wonder who it is that Batman's teaming up with the defeat the Joker?"

I felt my heart twang at that. It did kind of hurt that Batman wouldn't tell me. But he had to have a reason; he always had a reason for everything that he did. This would be no different. After the mission's success, he'd tell me. Still, I wondered, "Whoever it is, they've got his undivided trust. He'd never face the Joker with anyone who isn't flawlessly in sync with him."

"Any ideas on who that might be?" Connor asked with a slightly amused hint to his voice. I wracked my mind for anyone like that who _wasn't _me. I mean, thinking wise there was always Alfred. But Bruce wouldn't ever let Alfred face the Joker and Alfred would never condone even thinking about the Joker. So I supposed that had to be impossible. Who did Batman trust other than himself?

"None. Either way, Batman's trust is hard to earn, so the person must be worthy of it." I reasoned, more with myself than with anyone else. That seemed to satisfy everyone else, but I still puzzled over who it might be. Maybe Batman had a friend or something that I never knew about. I decided that it was probably best that I didn't dwell on the matter for much longer because I still had my end of the mission to complete before I worried about Batman's. He could handle himself for sure.

"I'm zoning in on the closest red dot, and we should be arriving there in about ten minutes. I'll leave the ship on the top of a building," M'Gann informed us. We all nodded our acknowledgement and prepared to be leaving the ship and capturing some random person who we didn't actually know the appearance of. I got my tracking map up so that we could follow the person the moment we left the ship. M'Gann continued, "Are we going to be back quickly or shall I leave the ship in stealth mode?"

"Stealth mode. Definitely stealth mode." Artemis answered quickly. I smiled in agreement. If we left it out in the open all obvious like that, who knows how we'd find it on our way back. It would either be graphitised and beaten within an inch of its life or it just wouldn't be there altogether.

So, when we came in to land, M'Gann had the ship in stealth mode and we parked the ship at the top of a distinctive diamond shaped building that belonged to some well-off businessmen, accountants, insurance brokers and the like. It was unlikely that any criminals would make the effort to climb to the top of this building just for something that wasn't guaranteed to benefit them personally. The Bio-ship was fairly safe – especially in stealth mode.

As we all left the Bio-ship we knew that we had to get down to street level first, but being as dark as it had become it would be difficult to do anything fast. I walked over to the edge of the building and looked directly below before referring to my map. It looked like the red dot was on the move and was going in the direction that I was looking in.

"If we jump down this side of the building, then we'll be heading in the right direction. I guess Superboy could jump down with someone _gently_ and M'Gann could fly someone down. I'll take someone too." I said planning aloud. Artemis immediately shifted to M'Gann's side as though claiming her in an unspoken way and Aqualad did the same with Connor.

I turned around and smiled smugly at KF. He looked around rapidly in a panic and then at the others appealingly, "You can't let him take me! He just jumps off the building and then figures out how to survive later!" I walked over to him and patted him on the back slowly three times. He sighed loudly and walked to the edge of the building with me. Taking a look over the edge he immediately drew his head back and grabbed my wrist, looking slightly green.

Without any warning, I grabbed him and jumped off of the roof. I earned a loud screech, not uncommon at night in Gotham, from KF as we both fell together through the air. I watched Connor and Aqualad plummeting to the ground in a controlled descent, and shortly after M'Gann and Artemis gracefully gliding to the ground. Then I looked around for a good place to fire off my grapple hook. Once I'd found it, I fired it and swung towards the concrete below. I ran out of the landing, dragging KF along behind me for once.

I found the flight exhilarating. KF found it traumatising. He lay down on the ground as soon as we'd stopped moving and slapped at my ankles, "Man don't do that to me!" He shouted. I broke out into laughter and pulled him to his feet. It was time to get that red dot and get some information. Plus, lying down in the streets of Gotham was possibly the strangest thing I'd seen when a person was still alive and in good health.

"This way, team, he's on the move!" Aqualad said, still slightly amused at KF's obvious terror. He started at a run and followed the moving red dot on the map. I quickly decided to take to higher ground to keep a look out and the others just went along with the usual 'disappearing act'. As I ran, I noticed how whichever turning we took to catch up to the red dot, the red dot took an opposite turning that headed definitely _away _from us.

He knew. He knew that we were following him. But how? The team were following all of the stealth techniques that I had helped Batman to teach them. They were in the shadows, using their surroundings to their advantage just how we'd taught them. Nobody should have known that they were there let alone in pursuit of a person.

I jumped out in front of the team from where I was. I kept watch on the red dot; it had changed direction and was heading towards us. They came to a shocked halt and looked at me in curiosity and slight annoyance. I pointed at the dot, "He knew that we were following him. But look, now he's coming right for us. Get ready!"

We formed a defensive circle, covering each other's backs and evenly distributed in power. Someone came speeding around the corner on a beaten up old motorbike and jumped off of it, leaving it on a collision course with the rest of us. I jumped out of the way as quickly as I could, but it wouldn't be fast enough. Luckily KF had my back and ran me out of the way. The person who was on the bike was definitely the red dot; it was right on top of us.

Whoever the person was, they ran straight for us and attacked. They knew exactly who each individual one of us was, and they knew how to tackle each individual one of us with the kind of precision that was scary. He flicked open a lighter and threw it at M'Gann to spook her and distract her for a moment and then launched straight for Aqualad. A few moves and Aqualad was down, not unconscious, but down.

Then I realised. I knew those moves. I _taught _those moves. It couldn't be. Finally, I knocked myself out of the daze that I was in and used Superboy as a spring board and landed on the assailant's shoulders. I tackled him to the ground and ripped off the mask that he was wearing. _I knew it. _

"Danny?" I asked in confusion, "Danny is that you?" My team froze. They all seemed to be completely stuck in shock. I was pretty frozen in shock too. If this was Danny then there were a few allegiance issues that I would have to tackle in the next five seconds.

"Wait. Robbie is that you?" He responded. I couldn't hold back the grin that was stuck in place on my face. He was alive! I didn't know how, and I definitely didn't understand how he ended up working for the Joker of all people. But he was alive! I got off of him and Danny sat up, rubbing the back of his head where I'd made him hit it when I knocked him down. He looked at me and then back at my team and said, "No way. Seriously? God, Robbie, how low did you stoop?"

_**Confused yet? Good! In the next chapter, we'll see where Robin's fight lies and how he chooses to deal with all of this. What will the team think of Robin's history with this guy? You'll have to wait and see!**_

_**Thanks so much for reading and leave a comment or a PM if you have questions, you've spotted a mistake (or ten) or if you just generally want to say stuff! Didn't read this through... So yeah apologies if it's not all that great! :D**_

_**Varishi x**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hi everyone. So here's the next chapter, I think it's a little shorter than the first one but you know... It just worked out that way! :D**_

_**DARKSOMEONE41:**__** Awwww thanks Astrid! I'm so glad you like it and I really hope you like this next chapter too!**_

_**3DPhantom:**__** Thanks, I hope you like this next too! I'll try to update as regularly as possible, but I tend to take my time with writing these days since I'm so busy all the time!**_

_**fantasiedreamar:**__** Thanks for the review! As I said to 3DPhantom, I'll try to update as regularly as possible and I hope you enjoy this next!**_

_**On to the story!**_

I woke up someplace dark. I had absolutely no memory of how I'd gotten there. As I looked around at where I was in an effort to ground myself, I found that I couldn't see anything because it was too dark. I was certain that I wasn't outside though. I then tried to move around a little bit and found that I couldn't. _Great, _I thought to myself, _That's just great._

Whilst I wiggled about some more to figure out exactly how I was restrained I thought about how I might've gotten here. I tried to remember what had happened most recently. I remembered being sent out to Gotham with the team to gather intel and then I remembered following one of the nearest perpetrators on my map. Then it got a little fuzzy. Whenever I tried to remember anything more recent than that, my head began to hurt.

I flicked a tool out of the index finger of my glove and started to try picking the lock that was restraining my left hand. I'd figured out roughly how I was being held. There were two straps holding my feet on the cold slab that I was laid out on and then two cuffs holding my hands down. It was simple, but effective. Picking a lock one handed was difficult, but not impossible, so I imagined that I would be done and out of here in less than five minutes. I needed to find my team.

After about a minute of intense concentration on the lock holding my left hand with no success I took a breather. My head had begun to pound and it was making me dizzy. I reasoned that it would be no good getting free if I was in no condition to go anywhere. So taking a break was a small price to pay for a few added minutes to the escape plan.

I could feel myself becoming tired and made a point of acknowledging the possibility of a concussion and the stupidity that it would take to fall asleep at this time. It was quite hard to stay awake, especially when I knew that sleep would get rid of the pain in my head for a while, but it was worth the effort since it led me to a memory.

I suddenly remembered a little bit more about where I'd been before I was here. I didn't, I mean I couldn't have – well, I thought I'd bumped into a person that I knew a long, long time ago. But that was impossible since it was a person that I knew to be dead. Maybe that was a hallucination or some kind of unconscious dream, either way I dismissed it as irrelevant. I didn't know, and I supposed I wouldn't know what really had happened until I found my team so I tried the locks again.

I felt as though I was close to a breakthrough when I heard the sound of approaching footsteps and winced at the unfortunate timing. I put the pick back into my glove and then tried to stay calm as a door swung open and flooded whenever I was with light. It was so bright that it was blinding and my eyes didn't have time to adjust before whoever was there took away my restraints and threw something at me, saying, "The boss says to put those on and come on out."

The door slammed and I was plunged back into darkness. I rubbed at my eyes for a moment and then felt about on the ground for whatever had been thrown at me. When I came into contact with it they felt just like any ordinary clothes. I frowned and then followed it with a smirk when I thought about what they might look like. For all I knew, the person that I was dealing with just wanted to see me in pink.

Still, I had no idea who was holding me and what they were capable of and further investigation of my condition told me that my utility belt was missing and my head was bleeding and so I figured that I may as well humour them. So, hoping that there weren't any night vision cameras around of the like, I took off my Robin uniform and put on the clothes that had been provided for me. They were the exact right size too, which was suspicious and wrong.

After I'd put on the clothes I moved in the direction of where I assumed the door was, disorientated and dizzy the entire way. Whatever had happened to my head, it was a problem that needed dealing with. I was certain that if my mask wasn't soaking it up, there would be blood running into my eyes and impairing my vision. I couldn't feel a handle or something to slide the door open with so I rolled my eyes at how lame this was going to be and then knocked instead.

Surprisingly enough, the door swung open and that bright light enveloped me again. I brought my hand up to shade my eyes and tried to get a look at the person stood in front of me. I couldn't tell who it was, they seemed vaguely familiar but I didn't recognise them. He pointed in the direction that I should have been walking and I thought I saw him wince when he saw the blood running down my face as I turned to walk.

As I walked down the corridor it became apparent that we were underground, wherever we were. The area was dark and dingy, only lit by a few occasional cheap light bulbs that were connected together by a few wires that were badly secured to the ceiling. The corridor itself was almost carved out of rock; it was probably achieved by a series of explosions to clear the tunnel. It created a frightening sort of atmosphere, but there was a warm security about it too. I could have sworn that I knew this place, but I just didn't know where from.

The corridor came out into a big room that looked like a little home. And I couldn't believe my eyes. I _did _know this place. But I never thought that I would ever come back here, this place brought back a lot of bad memories. If I was here, then that hallucination about seeing an old friend wasn't a hallucination at all. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out how he was alive and I didn't understand why I was being treated as though I was a prisoner.

The big room was better lit than the corridor and I was met by fifteen people all in black, including the one behind me who was making sure that I didn't do a runner. There were sofas and mattresses and all sorts of little home making things that just made the glorified cave look a lot more like a home. I _remembered _this place, and although I wished I could have come back in different circumstances, I was so happy that it finally looked like it served as a proper home to some people.

I stopped at the centre of the room after catching sight of my team. They were stood up against a wall to my right and there were two people pointing guns at them. I'd thought that they may have been in a similar situation to me, but as far as I could see they were unharmed. I felt confused and overwhelmed, especially when I identified one of the people amongst the crowd as Danny. Danny who I watched die a long time ago.

The combination of too much movement and the shock of Danny's presence was enough to make me sway with dizziness and make the person behind me steady me so I didn't fall. It did bring everyone's attention to me though. My team looked so relieved to see me and I gathered that I was probably in the middle of a hostage situation, and I was the hostage. I wondered how my team was in such good shape and so quiet. Hostage situations were difficult that way.

"Get him a chair." Danny said authoritatively. Someone from the back of the room got up and put a chair just behind the two men training guns on my team, and my guard took me over to it to sit me down. Once I was sat I put my head in my hands and willed it to just stop throbbing. The condition of my head was distracting me and ruining my ability to concentrate completely. Danny probably realised this and looked slightly apologetic when he said, "Glad to see you awake, man."

I knew that he was trying to reach out to me. He probably wanted to say everything, but couldn't. Neither of us had ever been very good a communication. But right now, I was beginning to boil up with so much anger that I just wanted to get my team and get out of here. Even though I could probably have them all arrested at that moment, I wasn't thinking straight at the time. Instead of saying anything considered greeting, I said, "Let my team go."

Danny looked straight at me, as though he was sizing me up. How far he would really get if he didn't release my team? He must have seen something in my face that told him I'd not waste another word until he let them go and their lives were out of danger. So he nodded a bit to himself and turned to the team, saying, "I'll take the guns off of you and nobody will try to hurt you. All I ask is that you don't attack us or arrest us. At least, not until we've been able to talk."

"Deal." Aqualad said about a few seconds worth of consideration. He was probably wondering what Danny meant by 'talk'. Talk about what? But I supposed Danny probably wanted to talk about _everything_. How he wasn't dead, how I had become one of the good guys, why he hadn't come to find me after all this time? We had a lot to go over. That, and I was certain that the team was going to want the story of why I know these people.

The two men with guns lowered their weapons and stepped away. Artemis took a trial step forward, staring daggers at the people around her, and then deeming it safe enough to walk over to me. She kept her eyes on everyone as she walked and the knelt down in front of me so that she could get herself into my eye line. I was still staring at the floor until she interrupted the view. She looked pityingly at my head and then touched the sore part tenderly. I winced slightly, "I'm fine," I said with a small smile, "I may have a concussion though."

The rest of the team had wandered over to me very slowly and deliberately, trying to stick together as they had been taught and told over and over in training. Danny looked upset at the fact that the team actually cared about me, although he already knew that because he'd 'held me hostage'. But still, the proof seemed to bother him because it wasn't him who was helping me this time. It was the kind of people that he hated. To be honest, with good reason too given his background.

"So, I guess we have a lot to talk about, don't we?" Danny said in a quiet voice. He looked at me with both a happy expression and a sad one all at the same time. He was taking in how I'd changed and how different my behaviour was, just as I was observing him. We were both silent for a while. I couldn't ignore what my heart was telling me. This was the person I considered a brother I while back and even though I was angry beyond belief with him, he still deserved my time and patience. He'd earned that much.

"I guess we do."

_**Thanks for reading guys! As usual, if you spot any mistakes do let me know. Please drop me a PM if you want to ask me anything and leave a review to tell me what you thought!**_

_**A big thank you to all of my followers and favouriters!**_

_**Varishi x**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hello everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but I'm not really being strict with my writing schedule anymore. Updates will just come whenever they can because everything's way too hectic to do things any other way right now!**_

_**3DPhantom:**__** Thanks! I guess it's going to be a little while before I explain how Danny came back to life because in the next chapter I'm going to start explaining how they even knew each other and their history together. So, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the next that I'm probably going to upload right after this one!**_

_**DARKSOMEONE41:**__** Aww dammit Astrid you're making me blush!**_

_**ENJOY THE NEW CHAPTER!**_

It was like we didn't know where to start. It wasn't as though we hadn't seen each other in a year because we lived in different areas. That would have been completely normal and frankly, for me, too easy. We hadn't seen each other in years, and it was because I was convinced that Danny had died that day and I'd never gone looking for him. But the reason that I was so angry was that Danny hadn't come looking for _me._

Danny caught the look of malice that I was giving him and grimaced, "What's that look for, man?" He asked with a slight laugh in his voice. I couldn't believe that he had to ask. There were a few thousand good reasons to be angry with him, and as harsh as it may have sounded just being alive was one of them. The stress of seeing him alive again and the confusion that I felt at not understanding what he was doing was enough to set my head reeling on a normal day, but today with the injury it was making me dizzy just thinking.

"Why didn't you come and get me?" I whispered. Artemis who was still looking at my head worriedly took in a sharp breath and looked at my face carefully. I supposed out of everybody on my team, Artemis would be the one to understand my situation the most. She too came from a not-so-benevolent past and even though she knew her father and sister needed to be stopped, she still loved them – or at least one of them – despite what they had done. The rest of my team were shocked and they just didn't understand what there was between us.

"Robbie... I – I didn't..." Danny stammered. He trailed off before he could finish and just looked at me with pain filling his eyes. I was certain that the same look was in my own eyes as the both of us fell silent, him probably due to guilt and confusion at his own conflicting emotions and me because my head was killing me and I was beginning to think about asking for some sort of medical attention from my team. I would need bandages.

"That's enough. He needs help for the head injury _you _gave him," M'Gann piped up bravely. She had said exactly what had been on my mind and I made a note to thank her sometime. Maybe once my head was bandaged and evaluated, I could stand to think a little more clearly, "Then and _only _then will we come back here and talk." She sounded a lot more confident than I had ever thought her to be, but that may have been because Connor was stood right next to her like a giant mountain staring the others down with a scary-looking expression.

"No, you stay here. He's one of _us._ So as long as he's here, our guys will take care of him." Danny replied stiffly, returning to that cool and collected leader character that he had probably been when bargaining with my team for my life. I stayed quiet, swaying slightly on my chair as I felt my head get heavier. Kaldur knelt down next to me and steadied me with a concerned expression trained on me. I barely noticed though because I knew for a fact that if something wasn't done soon I would lose consciousness and I sincerely hoped that it wasn't due to blood loss.

"Oh, you mean how you 'took care of him' last night?" Artemis fumed. I tried to think back again to understand what she meant by that but I couldn't bring forth any new memories. But my team were making it out like Danny had been the one to knock me unconscious. He wouldn't do that though. Not to me anyway, right? I looked up to meet Danny's eye but he wouldn't look at me, he was ashamed. My heart started to ache a little when I realised that I was wrong. He had hurt me on purpose.

"You're not leaving." Danny said stubbornly, although even though I was no longer looking at him I could hear in his voice that what Artemis had said had gotten to him. I stared directly at the ground, too much was whizzing through my head at once and I felt sick. My head gave another huge swell and I wavered with it, causing Kaldur to steady me again except this time he didn't let me go. Artemis was seething with rage directed at Danny, and she was about to shout at him again until Aqualad decided to step in.

"We do not have time for this!" He shouted. Reaching up, Aqualad grabbed Artemis' wrist and brought her around in front of me to keep me steady whilst he got to his feet and faced Danny himself. I could no longer focus on anything in particular. Voices were clear enough, which was a good sign, but my vision was beginning to blur and I couldn't keep my balance. Aqualad continued, "Listen, it is obvious that there is some sort of unfinished business between you and Robin. You clearly care for him. We will not leave, but all I ask is a private place to treat him."

"Fine, I'll take you back to where he was being held. But just so you know, there is only one way in and out of here. So don't try anything funny." Danny replied. I was relieved that he had finally given some leeway. It was just like Kaldur to try to find the middle ground. Everything moved quite quickly then; I was hauled up from the chair I was sat on and my arms were secured around Kaldur's and Artemis' shoulders and we began to move slowly behind Danny. Connor stayed behind, seemingly to ensure that everyone who could have a part to play in the Joker's plan stayed put whilst the rest of us weren't watching.

I was taken back to that same cold, dark room where I woke up. Except this time a light was switched on that was separate from the failing light bulb that there had been when I first woke. The room was a lot brighter this time, and it brought to my attention a lot of blood that had clearly come from my head, on that table-looking thing that had straps to hold me on it. Wally, who hadn't yet had anything to say, took me from Artemis and Kaldur and helped me to sit up on the table, wincing with me as though he could feel my head throb when I moved.

Once I was sat, Danny left the room sparing only a short glance in my direction to go and get some medical supplies and that was when silence was completely abandoned. M'Gann rushed forward and cupped my face in both of her hands to make me look at her before demanding, "Are you alright? How long were you awake before they brought you out? Did they treat you well? Oh, Robin, we're so sorry that we let this happen!"

"Stop bombarding him, M'Gann. I doubt he's really in the mood to talk about it." Wally said sombrely. He was absolutely right, of course, but that was because Wally knew about Danny. I'd told him everything about my past, so I'd mentioned Danny before. What Wally didn't know was why I left the group and joined Batman, or how that happened. Wally didn't know that Danny was supposed to be dead. That bombshell was all mine to suffer through. But no matter how many times I thought back to that day, despite the pain, I couldn't figure out how Danny could be here.

Just as I was thinking back to the day he died, Danny walked back into the room with a case of medical equipment and a few bags of gauze and antiseptics. It was like he'd brought everything that they had down here. Aqualad gave Danny a short nod and then turned to me as he exited the room again to give us some privacy. Kneeling down on the floor, Aqualad got a piece of gauze out from one of the bags and then opened a water bottle from another and squirted some water on it. Then he set to work cleaning the blood from the top of my mask upwards. In the mean time, M'Gann set up a mind-link and checked that Connor was still alright on his own and promised to relay everything that was happening in here to him.

My eyes were fixed on the ground again, and I felt sort of dead inside. Seeing Danny had changed things. I had thought that I could work with Batman and spend my life atoning for everything that I had ever done wrong. But if Danny was still alive by some miracle, then it was obvious that I couldn't be the person that I was pretending to be. I'd have to drop everything and get Danny out of the mess that he had gotten himself into. I mean, the Joker? Really? I sighed heavily and lent back away from Aqualad's hand for a moment. As he reached up to adjust himself, I pushed his hand away.

"Don't worry about that, just disinfect it and bandage it up. I have to tell you guys something." I said, and was surprised to hear the emptiness in my voice. I supposed that letting go of everything that I had come to know was going to be a lot more difficult than anything I had let go of before. If I was going to manage to stop the Joker's plan of murdering probably thousands or even millions of people, and get Danny out of the danger zone _and_ make Batman understand that I _had _to leave him and the League, then I needed to prepare myself for it.

Kaldur cleansed my wound and bandaged it quickly and obediently and then sat back to look at me with curiosity. I thought a little bit about what I was going to tell my team, who I had grown to love and trust like they were family, about the team who had come before them. And the team who I would still be with were it not for Danny's supposed death. I had no idea how I could ever make them understand the ties that criminals could share with one another. The ties that I shared with these criminals.

"The truth is Danny put me back together again after something that happened a long time ago broke me apart." I began. I looked up at my team and observed their facial expressions: none of them seemed overly surprised, just curious. I leant forward and put my head in my hands in some sort of effort to relieve some of the pain that was building in it. I paused for a few moments, thinking things through and thinking about what was the right thing to do by everyone and eventually continued, "I have to stay here with them. I can't continue with the mission."

"Wait, Rob what?" Wally demanded hotly. He ran over in front of me and knelt down so that he was in my line of sight. I gave him a sympathetic look, but I knew he wasn't going to let this go easily. Wally searched my eyes for a moment and said, "These guys attacked you, held you hostage and now you have to stay? What, because you owe them something? Don't be stupid; we can't do this without you. We don't know Gotham."

"I owe them everything KF!" I retorted loudly, feeling my head swell uncomfortably when I did. I winced and settled myself down again before calmly speaking once more, "Listen, I know I haven't explained myself and I know that what I'm going to ask you to do is completely against everything you feel like you should do. But I promise there's a good reason."

"What exactly are you going to ask us to do Robin?" M'Gann asked softly. She had stepped in when KF had seemingly fallen to the floor in front of me and sat staring at the floor like he wasn't entirely sure whether he was dreaming or not. I smiled softly, already feeling guilt and regret beginning to plague my mind.

"I need you all to go and find Batman, and then go home."

_**Thanks for reading, as always leave a review or a PM and tell me what you thought and point out any mistakes that you spot ;)**_

_**Varishi x**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**I suppose I have another chapter for you all. Once again, leave a review and tell me what you thought or if you spot any mistakes. I don't really read through very much anymore so there's likely to be a lot! **_

_**Hope you enjoy!**_

_Nothing's left. Nothing. I have no home, there's no one left who can care about me. I've been sat in this same spot for months waiting for the system to correct itself and get me out of here. I'm not a criminal. Whilst I'm in here, the man who killed my family is walking about completely free. _

I was sat in the corner of the cell that I slept in night after night, hoping that someone would soon come to rescue me from this place. Surely someone had noticed by now the disgusting injustice of my incarceration when I was the victim of a horrible crime. Yet, it seemed that nobody cared about anyone else in Gotham. I'd never noticed before when we had passed through with the circus previously, but since I'd been sat stewing in my own dark thoughts for months on end there was no other conclusion for me to come to.

I was sick and tired of nothing ever happening to get me out of this stupid detention centre. I was even more frustrated that I hadn't been told any news about the people who killed my parents since the day it actually happened. So enough was enough and tonight was the night. I'd been planning it for ages and it was finally time to break out of this place. It wouldn't be easy, considering I was getting out all alone, but if nobody else was going to arrest my parents' killer then I was just going to have to find this guy and kill him myself.

A guard walked past my cell and banged on the metal bars loudly, jerking me violently back to the physical world, "Lights out." He announced. I nodded tightly and he moved on. So, I supposed that it was time to get to work. Once I heard the guard bang on exactly sixteen cells, the number of cells after mine that led out of the room and to the next cell block, I knew that the guard was out of earshot and wouldn't hear my escape. I also knew that he wouldn't return to this cell block now until morning. That didn't matter so much because the moment I breached my cell and stepped out into the corridor, the cameras would see me and sound an alarm.

I was ready for all of this, after months of observation. I had also noticed long ago that there was something different about my cell to the others. Mine was slightly broken I had discovered when I took a closer look at the doors. So, as I lifted my metal bed up to the bars imprisoning me and put it in such a position that I knew would break the cell's hinges, I went over what would happen next quickly in my head and nodded firmly before subtly shifting the metal frame and creating that all important gap between the metal bars and the walls they were secured to.

I slipped out between the bars and then sprinted down the corridor. I heard the alarms beginning to sound the moment that I left and red flashing lights became the only thing that was allowing me to see every now and then. Once I turned my third corner and was met with the first high security door, but I knew that guards would soon be rushing through this door to look for _me. _So I climbed an empty nearby cell and waited close by the ceiling for the door to open. When it did and the guards filtered through, I slipped through the door and continued on. That was one door down, two to go. Then I'd be out in the courtyard.

As I ran past even more cells, it only occurred to me now that all of the boys that I was running past were either goading me on, yelling insults at the tops of their voices or cursing me to hell for not taking them with me. Still, I stayed focused or I'd never make it out of this terrible place where there was no justice and there was no reason to go on. The next door was not nearly as high tech, and I could easily pick the lock on it with no trouble. I stopped to examine the door for a moment, breathing hard form exertion and fear. The only question was whether there'd be a guard stood there. Just as I'd thought there was one on the other side of the door.

I kept to the dark side of the corridor and then silently picked the lock. My hands shook nervously when I realised I was going to have to get past the guard somehow. He'd have to be out cold whatever I did. So I took a deep breath and then opened the door and threw myself at him, knocking him to the floor. I then grabbed the rifle that he'd dropped and thumped him on the head with it, and he was gone. I worried for a moment that I'd killed him, feeling a cold panic beginning to wash over me, but then he made a small noise and I shook my head clear. Refocus. One more door.

The final door was simple, it was a fire exit and so I could easily just push it open and run out into the courtyard. All I had to do then was climb the fence and get over the barbed wire somehow. I'd figured out long ago that there was no way to get over that, so I would just go through it. I was definitely desperate enough, so why not? As I ran out into the courtyard the alarms got significantly dimmer and I could free the promise of freedom spurring me on now more than ever. Surely the hardest part was over. In Gotham, there were more escapees who were never recaptured then there were honest working people in some places. My chances were increasing by the minute.

I ran at the fences straight ahead, figuring that it didn't really matter where I started, and began to climb carefully but as quickly as possible. The guards had now made it to the courtyard and were beginning to cross the field to capture me. I was at the top by this time and took another steadying breath before forcing myself through the barbed wire. I could feel it digging into my skin everywhere and tried to ignore it as best I could, but it was hard. By the time I'd struggled through the barbed wire, there was no longer the time to have the luxury of carefully climbing down the other side. The guards were getting into vehicles and coming to meet me outside the prison, so I jumped.

I didn't want to risk breaking my legs, so I angled myself in such a way that I'd have most of the impact on my arms whilst protecting the rest of myself. When I hit the ground, there was a horrible pain in my right arm that caused me to cry out and stay where I was for a few moments. But I couldn't stay here; I could deal with the pain later. I had to get a move on now, run into Gotham under the cover of the surrounding trees and find a place to hide until the morning. With the guards almost upon me I rushed under the tree cover and didn't look back. I was too scared that they'd take me back to that place again. So, with my head spinning from the fall, I lurched ahead with more determination than ever and wouldn't stop pushing ahead until I was certain that I'd lost them.

When I began to see the first real buildings of Gotham, I felt reasonably safe. I decided that it might be safe enough to finally slow my pace. But I wasn't actually given a choice because someone jumped out right in front of me and caused me to yelp in surprise before I lashed out at him. The teen that I was looking at arrogantly dodged every move with a smug smile fixed on his face. His hands never left his pockets and he didn't seem to have any trouble avoiding me at all – which was impressive given the flexibility that acrobatics had given me.

"Whoa, slow down there, Squibbles, you're going to hurt someone." The teen smirked sarcastically. I dropped my defences and looked around frantically for guards that may have been catching up to me. He was in my way and jeopardising my escape. He slapped a hand down on my shoulder and crouched down to my eye level, "That was quite a show you put on there. Must say that's the last thing I expected to see today. And hey, don't look at me like that, man. I've got somewhere you can come and hide out."

I stared at him wordlessly: did he think I was stupid? He'd probably just call the police the moment I followed him or something. I tried to run off again, worried that the time I had spent here with him was time that the guards had spent following my tracks. Or getting the dogs to sniff me out or something. Then again, I was young and naive then. I didn't realise that they'd probably already given up by then; after all, Gotham guards were amongst the first in the world for laziness. Still, I was spooked out of my mind and was already injured. There was some part of me that didn't care where I ended up, as long as I could sit down.

So, reckless as it seemed in hindsight, I went with the teen that I knew literally nothing about and hoped for the best. We didn't run, we walked calmly back to wherever it was that he was taking me. He was talking to me on the way, though I don't remember anymore what it was that he was saying. Though knowing him it was completely irrelevant to anything that was happening. When I first arrived at the place that I would learn to call home, I was terrified.

There I was, a nine year old with no friends or family, nobody who would care if I disappeared off of the face of the earth, about to walk into the dingiest, most run down and dirty-looking place I'd ever seen in my life. If this teenager was going to kill me, nobody would know or care. It seemed like that only really sunk in when I was stood staring at the building that I was expected to enter like everything was completely average.

"Well then Squibbles, come on in. Don't worry; this place isn't on anyone's radar. According to all official records, this place was demolished in 1943." He informed me as though that was the only thing on my mind. I had to admit, it was a pretty big part of what was on my mind, but it was far from everything. He pushed the door open and walked in, and so not having anything else to do with myself I followed.

Inside, the place was just a big empty building that had a few bits of furniture in it and a fire right in the centre of the room with some more people gathered around it. The walls were made of concrete and the entire ceiling was made of big glass panels that were so old that they had turned greenish grey and probably hadn't shown the stars for years. There wasn't much in the way of furniture, but there was enough for me to know that these people were living here. In this strange and nasty place.

"Hey Danny's home!" One of them announced. With that statement, the others looked over and acknowledged his presence too. And with it, took in mine and made me even more frightened and anxious. A part of me was convinced for a long time that maybe running the other way would be a better idea than staying. But, looking back, it was a damn good thing that I had stayed because I wasn't so sure that I honestly had thought that I would make it to Gotham without being caught again. So I hadn't planned that far ahead. The same person demanded, "Did you bring the food?"

"I got a little sidetracked I'm afraid, mate." 'Danny' announced back, which was met with a chorus of groans. But he held a hand up and gestured to me, "But look what I found! I've been calling him Squibbles because he's a little scrawny. But I found him wandering alone on the outskirts and took pity on him. So, what do you think guys? Can I keep him?"

_**Thanks for reading!**_

_**Varishi x**_


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